Every time it rained, she knew she was in for a sleepless night. As the water fell on Mrs R’s damaged roof, she lay awake in fear, waiting for her ceiling to cave in. When morning came, she would begin emptying large buckets of water – sometimes up to four times a day.
This was how the Bay of Plenty resident, a war-veteran’s widow, lived for years - under a roof in desperate need of replacement. But with an $18,000 price tag, as a pensioner in her late 60s there was no way she could afford it.
This is the story of her long, arduous journey and how Sustainability Options together with the National RSA were finally able to restore not just Mrs R’s home but her wairua too.
“Roof leaking profusely”
Sustainability Options was introduced to Mrs R by way of a December 2021 email. The subject line read: “Roof leaking profusely” and detailed the plight of a woman who would later share that she was “praying so hard her knees were sore” for someone to help her.
Lead Team member Lee Siegle says, “Leaking roofs are a regular occurrence for us, and they are our biggest challenge”. This is due to the high cost and major impact they can have on a home in terms of moisture and damage. Siegle notes there can be little point doing other work on a home if the roof is badly leaking.
Before reaching out to Sustainability Options, Mrs. R had already spent about a decade going to various trusts and housing support providers, but she constantly hit roadblocks.
While Mrs R continued to endure the physical and mental impacts of living with a leaking roof, Sustainability Options immediately arranged for a roofer to make an assessment. It was initially hoped that a temporary repair could be made to stop the worst of the leaking and buy a bit of time.
However, the findings only confirmed Mrs R’s fears that her ceiling could well cave in and the only option was a full replacement.
Seeking funders while creating a healthier home
Sustainability Options worked to investigate funding options. While they could offer some financial contribution through its 20 Degrees funding - which allows the team to assist whānau with repairs - this is limited and couldn’t cover the full cost of a new roof for Mrs R.
As they waited for quotes to come in, Sustainability Options worked to make Mrs. R’s home more comfortable, installing curtains, draught proofing, repairing broken windows and putting in a heat pump.
“These seemingly small actions, combined with the efforts behind the scenes we were making to try to find a solution for the roof, were monumental for Mrs. R,” says Siegle. “ … she began to see light at the end of the tunnel.”
Mrs R says Sustainability Options’ work “lifted” her wairua.
“I’m just so grateful to Sustainability Options, because they’ve done so much for me. I couldn’t say enough to people about them.”
Support floods in
With quotes in hand, Sustainability Options’ next step was to raise enough funds for Mrs R’s new roof. In the meantime, Siegle started receiving calls from multiple people wanting to help Mrs. R, asking what was going on and when the roof would be replaced.
While the wait stretched on Sustainability Options made what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to repair the roof with a temporary solution.
One of the many people supporting Mrs. R was her niece, who made several trips down from Auckland to help. With her support, Sustainability Options tried another temporary solution using a tarpaulin. This helped for a little while and offered Mrs. R some relief.
Siegle recalls this period of reaching out to various organisations for support, feeling like there was some initial hope but time and again finding themselves either turned down due to Mrs R “not quite fitting the criteria” or for no clear reason, promising leads would go dead.
“It took a lot of time and perseverance. Every time it rained I thought of Mrs R.”
A ceiling collapsed, an exceptional request
A year-and-a-half after their initial visit and with myriad avenues exhausted, Siegle reached out to the Mount Maunganui RSA “to see if they had any funding available to help a veteran’s whānau.”
Noting Mrs. R’s husband proudly served in the Korean War, the RSA support advisor was quick to respond, realising this was an exceptional request. They advised support from National RSA would be required.
“It felt like we were finally making progress,” Siegle recalls.
But by this point, the temporary roofing fix had failed.
“While we made advancements on one front, Mrs. R was living through a very wet winter.”
In early July, 2023, in the middle of the day with her great-grandson in the house, her living room ceiling collapsed. Thankfully the little boy wasn’t in the room when it caved in.
Siegle says after years of waiting and hoping, it was clear Mrs R’s patience and resilience was wearing thin. She still had bucketloads of water coming through her roof every time it rained and had to close off her living room.
“I try to erase that time from my mind now,” Mrs R says reflecting on the immense stress of this period.
“It was challenging for everyone involved,” says Siegle who received messages from Mrs R as she waited to hear from the RSA.
“Good morning still no news from national RSA they say no news is good news you know it's hard to know their process I'm praying so hard my knees are sore thank you for taking the time to read my text have a good day.”
Working hard behind the scenes
Behind the scenes, National RSA was working hard to bring together several funding streams from local RSAs, the RSA’s Cyclone Gabrielle relief fund, and the National Poppy Trust.
In July 2023 National RSA confirmed it could provide most of the funding required to replace Mrs. R’s roof.
Sustainability Options’ 20 Degrees funding was able to top-up the remainder of the cost.
Siegle remembers calling Mrs R to finally give her the good news.
“When I called … she was speechless. Her first response was, ‘Oh, am I?’. She could not believe that it was happening after all this time. I could hear the emotion through the phone and we both agreed that this wasn’t the end of our journey, but rather, the beginning.“
Mrs R says she still recalls the day and time that the call came in.
“I was overwhelmed. The relief, the joy. [I was] so elated, so happy.”
Moved to tears
Iron Clad Roofing was called in for the new roof install. Quick on the job, the team understood the urgency for Mrs R and within three weeks the new roof was complete.
The day the roof went on was a family affair full of emotion. Mrs. R’s son took the day off work to watch and another whānau member was there in support.
Mrs. R showed her appreciation by sharing kai with the workers and Siegle recalls “spending time reflecting on the difficult journey while celebrating the immense joy of finally seeing the old roof pulled off, and the new one going on.”
She says given all the years of waiting, “Mrs. R didn’t believe that it was going to happen until the roofers turned up.”
While the work was taking place, Siegle climbed a nearby hill to get pictures and showed them to Mrs R.
“She burst into tears and we had a big hug. She had no words, just a lot of thanks.”
Mrs R says she “can’t thank Sustainability Options and the RSA enough. Big ups, really big ups to them both.”
“It can rain all it likes”
Fast forward to a few months later and Siegle and Mrs R are sitting at the kitchen table in her repaired whare.
The war-veteran’s widow reflects on her late husband, recalling how he had always looked after her,
his whānau, and their wider community.
“Everybody loved him,” she says. “Even though my husband’s been gone all these years, he’s still helping me.”
Siegle agrees, noting “through his service to his country and thanks to the support of the RSA, he was able to look after her once more.”
She says now, as Mrs R enjoys a warmer and noticeably drier home, there is a returned sense of pride and optimism in the home as she prepares for the next stages of her journey.
Mrs R says, “I used to sing that song: ‘Don’t let the rain come down, my roof’s got a hole in it and I might drown …”
Now she says she sings songs of praise and every time it rains she tells herself, “it can rain all it likes.”
